Banu DAVUN, Yusuf ALBAYRAK

From the 4th AD, some Christian clergymen started to come to Göreme, Güzelyurt and Belisırma in Aksaray and Cappadocia regions and made these places a religiously important area. They needed a place where they could realized their religious ceremonies in the Ihlara Valley, share the bread and wine symbolizing the flesh and blood of Christ and be baptized, and they continued their lives in these places by building churches for this purpose. Dictionary meaning of the word church is the place of worship. Church architecture has developed in different forms and plan types. Churches, which are generally built with domes and cross plans, have appeared in different plan types since the early periods when Christianity started to develop. They made frescos mostly containing religious scenes on the walls of churches. Fresco is a wall painting technique using water-soluble paint pigments on wet plaster. It is a painting technique made directly on the rock with red ocher. With this technique, bedrock is used as a background. One of the churches where wall paintings are made is the Serpentine Church located in the Ihlara valley. In the wall paintings in the church., There are ascension to Sky, Child Jesus with Mariam and Bishop Chrysostomos, the Roman Emperor Constantine and his mother Helene, the death of Mary, be buried of the Egyptian Mariam, Daniel is Between the Arslans, The Last Dinner, and the Crucifixion, Jesus who seat cross-legged between Cebrail and Mikhail, the last judgment scenes and four women who have been attacked by snakes. The church was named "Serpentine Church" because of the depictions of four sinful women attacked by snakes on the western wall. These women who commit crimes are punished by being bitten by snakes from various parts. The snakes depicted in Fresco have been considered creative and sacred in many societies from primitive to civilised. The snake has appeared as a devil symbol of evil in some societies, and as a divine animal in some societies with its properties that can be both poison and healing.We see snake depictions in Göbekli Tepe and similar settlements, which are dated to about 12 thousand years ago and are located within the borders of Sanlıurfa. This fresco is as important in terms of aesthetics as it is religious expression. Aesthetics means emotional perception in Greek.. Aesthetics is considered as a science related to the information provided by tangible perception and sensory. The ideas and emotions of women who have been attacked by snake are transmitted to the audience in the facial expressions of the horrified in the snake fresco and lamented women and messages are given by symbols.

Keywords: Aksaray, Ihlara, Church, Serpentine Church, Snake, Fresco, Aesthetics